Kites - Preview

Lovely locales are shot and edited beautifully and set to some very nice background music. But the story doesn't fly that high. The twists and turns are mere ploys to get to an end that was decided before the first chapter was written.

Reviews

The first theatrical promo of the film was scheduled to coincide with Valentine's day. That, right there, defines the genre and target audience. And once you have taken a look at that promo, you know this Hrithik-starrer is a combination of what he's done so far - action and romance. Romance, thrill, suspense, Hrithik, Spanish actress, Roshan production - the "satisfaction guaranteed - at least for the eyes" commitment can be easily taken for granted.

I'd be more than happy to ignore the meek attempt at humor, if the makers have promised to do the same.

However, while watching the kites flying in the other promo, I couldn't help but think - Kites seem to be the new flowers.

Remember the flowers romancing each other on the entire screen to avoid showing the human lead couple getting too romantic for our morals?

Turns out there is more to the name than the trailers make out to be. While the concept seems random in producer-writer Rakesh Roshan's initial words -

The idea for Kites came to me when I was gazing at the sky and saw two kites flying. It looked very romantic. It was very intriguing--the way they came close, played, almost embraced each other and then drew apart. Unaware that someone else was pulling the strings and could cut them loose. I sat down and penned a story around this idea.

When director, Anurag Basu, explains the metaphor in relation to the lead characters, it gets surprisingly interesting. As in, one doesn't expect too much depth from and action chick-flick, however romantic they might try to make it. But, this quote, reminded me of some of the lovely insights that the director's earlier venture Life in a…Metro

Kites fly against the wind and not with it, stronger the wind blows, higher the kites fly…Our protagonists in the movie too face obstacles; their love grows deeper with every increasing obstacle.

Wowsie wow!! Philosophy with romance and action. Can this really be true? And then add to the mix, comments from Hrithik that actually go beyond his extra-chiseled overtly-Greek-God looks.

We do not want to be within the safety zone influenced by manipulative commercial thinking.

This is very encouraging for me as a cinema-lover, whether or not I'm a "fan", a main-stream actor, is coming back after 3.5 years and is not interested in enticing his audience with mere gimmicks. And though this comment from him might sound pretty childish and exposes the fact the limited philosophy our man is exposed to, it is rather endearing -

I can't multi-task. When I'm doing one film, I go completely into it and give my heart and soul to it. I got this inspiration from the Tinkle comic books that I used to read as a child

But, let's not get delusional. Mainstream cinema it is. There's a Spanish actress and an Australian hunk playing the villain. Though the makers do claim that those are not meant to be crowd-pullers. Also, I can't keep myself from giving him credit for giving us credit -

With so much of exposure, the audiences' taste is constantly changing. We take the masses for granted but they are smarter than any filmmaker.

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